A Color of His Own

We read the story A Color of His Own, by Leo Lionni.  The story chronicles a chameleon who doesn't understand why his skin changes color wherever he goes, yearning for one color of his own.  He finally meets another chameleon and forms a quick friendship where they stick together and stay the same color wherever they go!  We discussed why the chameleon changes color - for protection and how the color of their skin changes to allow them to "blend in" with their surroundings.  They then created their very own unique chameleon by deciding where it would live and designing the background and how they would then design the inside of the chameleon's skin by matching it.  They certainly used their critical and creative thinking skills to predict the patterns and designs in their chameleons today - and of course their best craftsmanship as they colored! Here are some to enjoy....

Contrast Unit

In these next two projects the students studied the art element of contrast.  They learned that contrast is a big difference between design elements such as colors - both light and dark and hue, and types of line -like straight and wavy.  The first project had them making circles on their papers and then selecting and coloring inside the circles with light colors.  They then selected and colored the background with dark colors.  As a finishing touch to add texture they then selected both light and dark pom poms to glue in the coordinating areas.  The second lesson was reinforcing the idea of landscape and horizon line but adding contrast.  We used bright and light colors in the background with paint and then added our darkest color, black, to add ground.  This was a great visual representation of the concept of contrast.  The horizon line was made by creating a "mixed- up" line of both wavy, straight lines.  Here are some examples of the results of both projects...

Vincent Van Gogh Unit

We read two stories about Vincent Van Gogh.  Students observed and discussed his artwork and how he became a famous artist.  They learned that he painted differently than artists before him and people learned to love his bright colors and bold marks and repeating lines/shapes.  We studied some of his landscapes as well as flower series such as Starry Night and his Sunflowers and Poppies.  We took on two projects to learn his style.  The first one was a landscape that was paper collage and oil pastels on bright colors.  We studied horizon line, where the land meets the sky, and his signature style of bold marks and bright colors.  The next project reinforced these ideas and methods, but we used paint.  I thought is would be nice to get their little motor skills practice with oil pastels first so when the took on wet paint they would be ready for the motions.  Here are some of the beautiful results of both projects....